Even the Dutch bicycle infrastructure wasn’t initially designed to promote cycling. It was primarily about road safety. It just happened to be that, with improved safety, people went cycling more. Especially women took to the bike. This was also observed in Seville, Spain where they put in better cycling infrastructure a couple of years ago, more women went cycling. In a way, women are the cycling canaries in the road safety coal mine.
Bizar how many trucks are driving there! And how quickly new road surfaces degrade. There is probably a connection between these facts. Do like the beautiful path in the park!
I just moved from 24th and San Gabriel (walked and biked all the time) down to an apartment on south Lamar, very close to Ben White, and I expected my biking to drop off significantly. Once my girlfriend and I took our first bike ride to town lake for the 4th of July fireworks, riding along Barton Skyway and Barton Hills, we fell in love. I feel much more connected to downtown austin by bike than I ever expected I would, and the bike has become first choice even in the heat. Seriously, these paths are really what makes a network work for all.
Yay! Thanks so much for watching and for the feedback. Let's spread the word about these new facilities emerging in the area... more and more are coming all the time. I hope you are enjoying the Active Towns Channel - be sure to check out the entire Austin playlist: bit.ly/AustinDutchBikePlaylist Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Thank you! And dang that playlist is exactly what I need! I found this two-part series looking for more Austin videos... I'm curious on your thoughts about East-West connections in the bike network. I feel really comfortable going north-south on bikeways like barton hills, rio grande, etc., but outside of the butler trail and 4th/5th st, it doesn't feel like there's enough east-west infrastructure. When I was in west campus, you could really go between guad and lamar (or even as far as across MoPac) without riding on 24th or MLK, both super unsafe situations. Now from south lamar, I have to go up to Oltorf or Mary st to get across to 1st or congress, and those streets are still pretty low-comfort biking. Perhaps my perception of directional bike infrastructure density is skewed by how linear the city is, but I've found in practice that my routes to place often involve a really straight shot north or south, followed by a multitude of complicated turns to stay safe going east or west.
@@perrondenais684 You are quite welcome! Yeah, depending on where you are trying to get to, the east - west routes can be challenging. If I need to get to SoCo Mary is my best bet. Honestly though I am usually going to the Eastside via 3rd Street through downtown, 4th Street under I-35 and then making my way to Boggy Creek to head North to the MLK station area where my cousin lives and onto Mueller where my friends live.
@@ActiveTowns Totally. Makes sense! And yeah, I meant to say 3rd/4th as the best east-west route. The good thing is that usually you can piece together east west routes through quiet neighborhood streets, which I'm comfortable with now, but it's just not the most intuitive for someone who is looking to do their first few rides or get into riding. I've never ridden Mary, so I'll give it a shot!
@@perrondenais684 Yeah, I talk about the quiet side streets a lot as a safe cycle network strategy. You'll probably really enjoy my conversation with Avi Stopper in Denver: czcams.com/video/azHyJdGDdVs/video.html
John, I took a good look at your video. Good developments there. A few notes :-) 1. If you're talking about safety, the first thing I would do is remove that stupid post in the middle of the bike path. That's what you're driving into, isn't it? 2. Why isn't the bike path you used to ride on a meter wider? 3. Then I look at all the space next to the roads and then I think: Why not completely separate cycle paths? 4. At 6.15 I finally see a somewhat normal (Dutch) cycle path. 5. Then at 6.21 I see a man running on the bike path. Please tell him the Dutch saying for tourists "Red is dead". 6. Around 8.00 I see that intersection. But is that road surface really that bad or does it just seem that way? 7. At 10.20 there is talk about the city staff and that they have to learn. I would say send them to the Netherlands on a number of courses. At CROW, for example, or learn something at the Dutch Cycling Embassy. Possibilities enough. I learned a lot at the CROW. 8. Which is also very important. A different urban approach. Provide small-scale shopping centers in the neighbourhoods. Then people don't need the car that often. 9. That bike path at 11 p.m. sounds like fun! 10. Here developers are given a whole set of rules to follow. So don't build neighborhoods without good infrastructure for everyone hahahaha. Must be something "socialist" :-) Anyway: I enjoy it. And the next time you drive past my house in the Netherlands (you did the last time) come by for a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a beer.
Thanks so much, Bert! Definitely would love to connect in person... perhaps next year. Yeah, you would not believe how hard it is to get any bike lanes of any kind built here in North America... All great points. I will say it is way easier in the new developments like the Mueller neighborhood, where everything is brand new from the ground up, but even then, there is so much "car-brain" thinking in the designs. Oh well, it's job security for me here at the Active Towns Channel - as there is so much work to be done. Cheers! John
Regarding people parking in bike lanes, it only takes a couple careless and irresponsible people to ruin it for all. In Phoenix where my daughter lives there is a wonderful paved bike trail right across the street from her house that goes all the way along the salt river to downtown Tempe and some homeless woman had at least 30 shopping carts full of junk in a line halfway out into it. In Denver, homeless people are passed out in the paths and there is human waste all over the place, trash, abandoned tents, clothes, shopping carts, bike share bikes and scooters in the ditches and broken glass all over the paths. Millions of dollars of infrastructure were ruined for everybody. It is really bad in Phoenix and I think it keeps a lot of people from using these facilities because of all the tweakers. I mean I carried pepper spray with me and I almost had to use it a couple times.
Yeah, these are a challenging set of issues - We have the privileged who feel entitled to park their cars, trucks, and SUVs wherever they like blocking sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, and even multi-use paths, and then we have the homeless and drug addicts who are like, well if they can do it, then we're just going set up camp here too. Either way, whether it's a $100,000 luxury SUV the size of a tank parked in the protected bike lane or a homeless encampment blocking the bike path, the net result is the same, what should have been an All Ages & Abilities active mobility facility is left unusable, and to your point, they need to be dealt with because they both are unacceptable situations. I believe in going upstream to address the root causes of complex problems, which is what I am doing with my content with regard to car dependency. When it comes to the root causes of homeless and drug addiction, those are a bit outside of my core area of expertise, although I have to believe that addressing the challenges of car dependency through better land use planning will result in safer and shorter active mobility and transit journeys from housing to jobs and other meaningful destinations and thus will ultimately help. Cheers! John
Good to hear "culture shift" which goes hand and hand with infrastructure improvement. Lots of positives on natural surface trails. Maybe John will one day ride that river road down into Salida, CO.
Funny thing is, Mark. Last summer I stopped by Salida on my home to Austin from Boulder, just to explore, and who do I run into at the river trail? Yep, Hill and his wife Laura. Hehe 😅They were in town for an extended visit to confirm Salida was going to be a good fit for them. Cheers! John 😀
@@ActiveTowns I wonder if that winding road I drove many years ago, along the river, leading to Salida, now has a bike trail. It would be a beautiful ride.
@@markcramer14 Hmmm... yeah, not sure. There is a short multi-use path along the river in town... and a rail trail path through town... doesn't look like there's anything along the river outside of the city limits
Yeah, I hear ya. My last time in Fort Lauderdale, I was thinking the same thing. Come together as a growing community demanding change, that is ultimately the only way it happens. Hill and Austin are testaments to that reality. Thanks so much for watching. Cheers! John
He's already gone... Yes, the Safe Streets Austin team is always looking for help... perhaps you are already pitching in when you have the time. Yeah, Tom W. is doing a lot of great work with the Red Line Parkway initiative. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John 😀
Very nice thank y o u
You are quite welcome. Thanks so much for tuning in. Cheers! John
Even the Dutch bicycle infrastructure wasn’t initially designed to promote cycling. It was primarily about road safety. It just happened to be that, with improved safety, people went cycling more. Especially women took to the bike. This was also observed in Seville, Spain where they put in better cycling infrastructure a couple of years ago, more women went cycling. In a way, women are the cycling canaries in the road safety coal mine.
Yes, great points. Here's my Seville video if you haven't seen it yet. czcams.com/video/LSjTHV27OCU/video.html
Bizar how many trucks are driving there! And how quickly new road surfaces degrade. There is probably a connection between these facts.
Do like the beautiful path in the park!
Yes! Very good point. It truly is a delightful path through the park. Thanks so much for tuning in. Cheers! John
I just moved from 24th and San Gabriel (walked and biked all the time) down to an apartment on south Lamar, very close to Ben White, and I expected my biking to drop off significantly. Once my girlfriend and I took our first bike ride to town lake for the 4th of July fireworks, riding along Barton Skyway and Barton Hills, we fell in love. I feel much more connected to downtown austin by bike than I ever expected I would, and the bike has become first choice even in the heat.
Seriously, these paths are really what makes a network work for all.
Yay! Thanks so much for watching and for the feedback. Let's spread the word about these new facilities emerging in the area... more and more are coming all the time. I hope you are enjoying the Active Towns Channel - be sure to check out the entire Austin playlist: bit.ly/AustinDutchBikePlaylist
Cheers!
John
@@ActiveTowns Thank you! And dang that playlist is exactly what I need! I found this two-part series looking for more Austin videos...
I'm curious on your thoughts about East-West connections in the bike network. I feel really comfortable going north-south on bikeways like barton hills, rio grande, etc., but outside of the butler trail and 4th/5th st, it doesn't feel like there's enough east-west infrastructure. When I was in west campus, you could really go between guad and lamar (or even as far as across MoPac) without riding on 24th or MLK, both super unsafe situations. Now from south lamar, I have to go up to Oltorf or Mary st to get across to 1st or congress, and those streets are still pretty low-comfort biking.
Perhaps my perception of directional bike infrastructure density is skewed by how linear the city is, but I've found in practice that my routes to place often involve a really straight shot north or south, followed by a multitude of complicated turns to stay safe going east or west.
@@perrondenais684 You are quite welcome! Yeah, depending on where you are trying to get to, the east - west routes can be challenging. If I need to get to SoCo Mary is my best bet. Honestly though I am usually going to the Eastside via 3rd Street through downtown, 4th Street under I-35 and then making my way to Boggy Creek to head North to the MLK station area where my cousin lives and onto Mueller where my friends live.
@@ActiveTowns Totally. Makes sense! And yeah, I meant to say 3rd/4th as the best east-west route.
The good thing is that usually you can piece together east west routes through quiet neighborhood streets, which I'm comfortable with now, but it's just not the most intuitive for someone who is looking to do their first few rides or get into riding.
I've never ridden Mary, so I'll give it a shot!
@@perrondenais684 Yeah, I talk about the quiet side streets a lot as a safe cycle network strategy. You'll probably really enjoy my conversation with Avi Stopper in Denver: czcams.com/video/azHyJdGDdVs/video.html
Good to see all the changes.
Thanks! More to come 😀
John, I took a good look at your video. Good developments there. A few notes :-)
1. If you're talking about safety, the first thing I would do is remove that stupid post in the middle of the bike path. That's what you're driving into, isn't it?
2. Why isn't the bike path you used to ride on a meter wider?
3. Then I look at all the space next to the roads and then I think: Why not completely separate cycle paths?
4. At 6.15 I finally see a somewhat normal (Dutch) cycle path.
5. Then at 6.21 I see a man running on the bike path. Please tell him the Dutch saying for tourists "Red is dead".
6. Around 8.00 I see that intersection. But is that road surface really that bad or does it just seem that way?
7. At 10.20 there is talk about the city staff and that they have to learn. I would say send them to the Netherlands on a number of courses. At CROW, for example, or learn something at the Dutch Cycling Embassy. Possibilities enough. I learned a lot at the CROW.
8. Which is also very important. A different urban approach. Provide small-scale shopping centers in the neighbourhoods. Then people don't need the car that often.
9. That bike path at 11 p.m. sounds like fun!
10. Here developers are given a whole set of rules to follow. So don't build neighborhoods without good infrastructure for everyone hahahaha. Must be something "socialist" :-) Anyway: I enjoy it.
And the next time you drive past my house in the Netherlands (you did the last time) come by for a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a beer.
Thanks so much, Bert! Definitely would love to connect in person... perhaps next year.
Yeah, you would not believe how hard it is to get any bike lanes of any kind built here in North America... All great points.
I will say it is way easier in the new developments like the Mueller neighborhood, where everything is brand new from the ground up, but even then, there is so much "car-brain" thinking in the designs. Oh well, it's job security for me here at the Active Towns Channel - as there is so much work to be done. Cheers! John
Regarding people parking in bike lanes, it only takes a couple careless and irresponsible people to ruin it for all. In Phoenix where my daughter lives there is a wonderful paved bike trail right across the street from her house that goes all the way along the salt river to downtown Tempe and some homeless woman had at least 30 shopping carts full of junk in a line halfway out into it. In Denver, homeless people are passed out in the paths and there is human waste all over the place, trash, abandoned tents, clothes, shopping carts, bike share bikes and scooters in the ditches and broken glass all over the paths. Millions of dollars of infrastructure were ruined for everybody. It is really bad in Phoenix and I think it keeps a lot of people from using these facilities because of all the tweakers. I mean I carried pepper spray with me and I almost had to use it a couple times.
Yeah, these are a challenging set of issues - We have the privileged who feel entitled to park their cars, trucks, and SUVs wherever they like blocking sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, and even multi-use paths, and then we have the homeless and drug addicts who are like, well if they can do it, then we're just going set up camp here too. Either way, whether it's a $100,000 luxury SUV the size of a tank parked in the protected bike lane or a homeless encampment blocking the bike path, the net result is the same, what should have been an All Ages & Abilities active mobility facility is left unusable, and to your point, they need to be dealt with because they both are unacceptable situations. I believe in going upstream to address the root causes of complex problems, which is what I am doing with my content with regard to car dependency. When it comes to the root causes of homeless and drug addiction, those are a bit outside of my core area of expertise, although I have to believe that addressing the challenges of car dependency through better land use planning will result in safer and shorter active mobility and transit journeys from housing to jobs and other meaningful destinations and thus will ultimately help. Cheers! John
Salida is fantastic! I live about an hour away and go there often. It's the place to be on 4th of July. Great Bike town.
I really need t get back there... hopefully one day soon. Cheers! 😀
Good to hear "culture shift" which goes hand and hand with infrastructure improvement. Lots of positives on natural surface trails. Maybe John will one day ride that river road down into Salida, CO.
Funny thing is, Mark. Last summer I stopped by Salida on my home to Austin from Boulder, just to explore, and who do I run into at the river trail? Yep, Hill and his wife Laura. Hehe 😅They were in town for an extended visit to confirm Salida was going to be a good fit for them. Cheers! John 😀
@@ActiveTowns I wonder if that winding road I drove many years ago, along the river, leading to Salida, now has a bike trail. It would be a beautiful ride.
@@markcramer14 Hmmm... yeah, not sure. There is a short multi-use path along the river in town... and a rail trail path through town... doesn't look like there's anything along the river outside of the city limits
I wish we had a better bicycle infrastructure and bicycle Lanes here in Fort Lauderdale Florida
Yeah, I hear ya. My last time in Fort Lauderdale, I was thinking the same thing. Come together as a growing community demanding change, that is ultimately the only way it happens. Hill and Austin are testaments to that reality. Thanks so much for watching. Cheers! John
Hill is moving? NOOOOOOOOOOO! Who is going to replace him? No one, that's who. He is irreplaceable, but we will try our best. I vote Tom W.
He's already gone... Yes, the Safe Streets Austin team is always looking for help... perhaps you are already pitching in when you have the time. Yeah, Tom W. is doing a lot of great work with the Red Line Parkway initiative. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John 😀